Women's Health

HEALTH: Haiti and Cuba, a Stark Contrast in AIDS Fight

By IPS Correspondents
Although some real progress has been made to reverse the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Latin America and the Caribbean, experts say huge gaps persist in the actions taken by governments in the region.

HEALTH: AIDS Summit Averts Gaze From Those Most at Risk

By Thalif Deen
The United Nations concluded a three-day meeting of world political leaders Friday by adopting an eight-page declaration calling for "strong national targets and comprehensive HIV prevention strategies" to fight the deadly disease AIDS.

HEALTH: U.S. Lacks National Action Plan on AIDS

By IPS Correspondents
Even as the U.S. tries to water down new global HIV/AIDS targets at a high-level United Nations meeting on the pandemic, it has also fallen short on commitments made five years ago to address HIV/AIDS at home, experts and civil society groups are charging.

HEALTH-CUBA: Abortion Competes With Contraceptives

By Dalia Acosta
Many women in Cuba resort to abortion, 40 years after it was decriminalised, as though it were just another contraceptive method. Some even prefer it to condoms, the pill or intrauterine devices (IUDs), without giving a thought to the risks involved or the ethical aspects.

HEALTH-KENYA: Changing Tradition Through Talk

By IPS Correspondents
It is a part of Kenya where prevalence rates for female genital mutilation (FGM) are at their highest, and communities deeply resistant to cultural change. However, Kajiado district is also an area where simple conversations hold out the promise of helping to end FGM.

HEALTH: Seeking Answers in the Failed Response to AIDS

By Thalif Deen
The AIDS epidemic, described by the United Nations as the "most destructive in human history" and accounting for more than 25 million deaths so far, is still a growing threat to global progress and stability.

BOLIVIA: Wanted – Healthcare Adapted To Indigenous Cultures

By Gustavo Capdevila
The alarming state of health in Bolivia is related to the dominant healthcare model, which ignores the society's traditional cultures, said Health Minister Nila Heredia, who is attending the World Health Assembly in this Swiss city.

AUSTRALIA: Ignoring Abuse of Aboriginal Women, Children

By Neena Bhandari
Revelations of horrific levels of sexual abuse and violence suffered by women and children in Australia's aboriginal communities have surfaced, even as the fifth session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) is underway in New York.

UGANDA: Abstinence Clashes With Reality When Women Are Powerless

By Evelyn Kiapi
Tens of thousands of Ugandan schoolchildren have enrolled in 'True Love Waits' clubs that promote sexual abstinence as the way to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS.

COLOMBIA: Magistrates Excommunicated for Partially Lifting Abortion Ban

By Constanza Vieira
Twenty-seven years after Congresswoman Consuelo Lleras unsuccessfully submitted a bill to legalise abortion in Colombia, the country’s Constitutional Court has recognised the right to terminate a pregnancy in case of rape, a threat to the woman’s life or health, or if the foetus has a deformity that would prevent survival outside the womb.

TRINIDAD: Women’s Group Says Public Backs Abortion Reform

By IPS Correspondents
During the visit of Jamaica's first female Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller late last month, her Trinidad and Tobago host, Patrick Manning, made a statement that most people here had heard already.

ENVIRONMENT-THAILAND: Rooting for Canal Treatment

By IPS Correspondents
The water in Hua Lamphong ‘klong' (canal) is pitch black. And its stench hangs heavy over the air. Yet, Siriporn Sawasdee insists that the water quality in the canal, which passes through the Klong Toey slum, is better than what it used to be.

SUDAN: For Vendors, It’s a Case of Struggle – and Struggle Again

By IPS Correspondents
Suzie Bernardo arrives at the market in the centre of Sudan's capital, Khartoum, at dawn, after a long bus ride from a remote slum. There she erects her portable charcoal stove, and sets out tea glasses clouded with fingerprints, and jars of tea, coffee and sugar.

HEALTH: Half of World’s Underweight Children in South Asia

By IPS Correspondents
Poor nutrition remains a global epidemic that contributes to the deaths of some 5.6 million children under five every year - more than half of all child deaths, according to a new report launched by the U.N. children's agency UNICEF Tuesday.

HEALTH-AFGHANISTAN: Good Tidings on the TB Front

By IPS Correspondents
For once, Afghanistan can report good news on the public health front. The country has been selected for a special award for its effective fight against tuberculosis (TB), which claims 20,000 lives every year, the majority of them women, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced.

JAPAN: Foster Parents in New Role as Population Slumps

By Suvendrini Kakuchi
A government plan to boost Japan's fledgling foster parent system as a means of stemming the population slide has revived the social debate on abortion and sex education for teenagers.

HEALTH-AFRICA: “An Opportunity to Change the Course of History”

By Moyiga Nduru
An Africa-wide campaign has been launched to halt HIV infections, this as the continent continues to be the worst affected by AIDS globally.

SOUTH AFRICA: The Shower That Washed Anti-AIDS Efforts Down the Drain

By Moyiga Nduru
AIDS activists have expressed concern about a remark by former South African deputy president Jacob Zuma that he minimised his risk of contracting the AIDS virus during unprotected sex with an HIV-positive woman, by taking a shower afterwards.

WORLD HEALTH DAY: Dead Mothers Don’t Talk

By IPS Correspondents
The current crisis of skilled healthcare workers could deal a fatal blow to the global anti- poverty campaign agreed to by world leaders six years ago, U.N. experts warned on World Health Day.

RIGHTS-NAMIBIA: Leaving Prostitution – Easier Said Than Done

By IPS Correspondents
"Everything revolves around money and without work there is no money," says 33-year-old Maria Xoagub*, a mother of three who earns her living as a prostitute. "Sometimes we try stopping going to sell our bodies in the streets, but when poverty takes over we are back there."

WORLD HEALTH DAY: Sandfly Plagues Afghans, Pakistanis

By IPS Correspondents
A parasitic skin disease spread by a hairy fly, that thrives in insanitary conditions, has assumed epidemic proportions in Afghanistan and across the border in camps for Afghan refugees in Pakistan.
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